MEANING OF SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM

SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM is the way Hindus describe Lord Shiv with respect and devotions. However one must understand the exact and practical meaning of the word or phrase so that life could become more meaningful and enjoyable. While attempting this post, care has been taken to avoid ambiguity, by expressing everything in simple language, without resorting to complicate things by adding Sanskrit Shlokas.

As per Hindu belief, the affair of the world is divided into three different parts which are as follows:

1. Creation: Since creation on its own is complicated, Lord Brahma provides guidance and overseas creation sitting in Bhramlok. Where this Bhramlok or planet Bhramlok is, no one knows. But it is certainly not on this earth. Creation as such cannot be scientifically described as exclusive earth related exercise; there are parameters outside earth which also influence this.

2. Taking care of the creation: Paalankarta in Sanskrit; Lord Vishnu takes care of the creation. His abode is Vishnulok, or Vaikunth, as some will say, which once again is not on this earth. As such there are parameters outside earth which influence this. 

3. Destruction: Sanghaarkarta in Sanskrit; Lord Shiv takes responsibility of this. His abode is Himalayas. As such all parameters for destruction are Earth-centric, and related to earth. 

As such Bhrama, Vishnu, Mahesh (Shiv), are in charge of creation, taking care of creation, and destruction respectively. 

Having understood the fine distinction related to above three assignments, we can now proceed to the first word “Satyam”.

SATYAM, as the word is very simple, means pertaining to TRUTH, i.e. Truth. But everything that is real and can be scientifically described is truth. But here we need not go that far. When we say Lord Shiv is Satyam, we mean that Shiv is the real truth. His presence is physical. He is within you and you are within HIM. He is the reason for your birth; and that is the truth. He is seriously interested in nurturing you and your growth and that is the Truth. Remember that Bhrama and Vishnu can only do things with the support and blessing of Shiv. He is the God who lives in this world and nourishes it. His interest in our well being is Supreme and that is the Truth; that is SATYAM.

Growing from an infant to a grown person, one needs the support of one's family, which happens to be one's right but also the external help and support. This is where Shiv becomes SHIVAM, meaning that he ensures that you receive the information and capability required to become an adult. Shivam means to give everything without expecting and asking for anything in return. That is what one's family and society does for the growth of an infant.Remember, Mata Parvati, a princess, or should we say a very rich princess, married Shiv after renouncing everything.SHE KNEW SHE CANNOT COME CLOSER TO SHIV WITHOUT GIVING AWAY EVERYTHING. Shiv gives away everything and in doing so HE does not even own a cottage of his own. Shiv is SHIVAM; the giver of everything. Since you are a part of Shiv and HE is a part of you, you have to ensure that you are also to some extent SHIVAM to harmonize your relation with Him (Read MAHASHIVRATRI )

SUNDRAM, as the word suggests means beautiful. A fully grown up person interacts with the world. His interaction, because of Shiv, gives him the real feeling of how beautiful the world is. Remember Shiv ensures that the world is a proper place to live in. The world is beautiful. But you, a part of Shiv have to show your own commitment that from this beautiful world you will not take anything that will spoil its beauty, or deplete it in such a way that, like everything else, it too, moves towards destruction. Sundaram requires some commitment from your side. You have been provided with a beautiful world. Make it more beautiful. And that ultimately is the only aim of ALL religions. You must become SUNDARAM like Shiv.

After that, the next important thing comes, which is important to complete the cycle; the destruction or death, and that is the truth. Satyam, you can say. So the cycle starts all over again.

SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM 

Please also read: UNDERSTANDING LIFE WITH SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM

IMPORTANT: Hindu Dharm is simple. The meaning has been explained here in simple terms. If you follow the links given in the post you will understand fully what is Satyam Shivam and Sundaram. However it is important to implement this in your life. For this you are requested to read the post: MEANING OF WORDS: SANATAN DHARM, DHARMIC, SPIRITUAL, GURU, SAADHU
HUMBLE REQUEST: Please try to become a DHARMIC person in your real life, which is simple, after following the post.

POLITICS COMMUNALIZES INDIA..HINDUS FEELING SUFFOCATED, LET DOWN

An Appeal to all Hindus and Hindu Society

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Hindus are 80% of total population. We know what the problem is. Yet unfortunately there seems to be no initiative from any one to solve this. And that certainly will not take the Hindu society and our nation forward. Since the problem has been discussed earlier also in this blog, I am briefly mentioning the same. The problem is the ATTITUDE of average Hindu, which needs to be changed. The ATTITUDE of average Hindu is extremely PASSIVE. If any one looks at the headlines of the daily newspaper in India, he or she won’t be amused. The paper is full of distressing news. Things certainly are not moving forward.Here are some facts:

1. Families below the poverty lines have actually increased after 63 years of independence.

2. Corruption in all areas, including sports, seems to be unending and is only increasing.

3. Frustration in youths for lack of opportunities because of caste reservation.

4. Backward class and backward tribes, in spite of reservations finding themselves uncomfortable with mainstream Hindu politics and Hindu religion.

5. Hindus, in general feel that though they are 80%, they have no say in important political decision making bodies, which are more sensitive to minorities.

Is this not distressing enough? Yet there seems to be no solution. Though, as has been said above, 

Though my entire blog is seriously dedicated to sort this problem, the main post concerning passive attitude of Hindus is mentioned herein under:

1. Passive attitude of Hindus….Solutions…

2. HOW to resolve the passive attitude of Hindus..

3. Are we doing enough as Hindu …..

4. A review of RAMCHARITMANAS ….. 

First thing every one of us HAS to UNDERSTAND is that no one else is going to solve our problems. It has to be sorted out by us Hindus only. And secondly and finally there is NO shortcut. 

That simply means that we have to get out of our sitting room/ drawing room, and write to media, to friends, to everyone you think can make a difference. We have to tell them that we need a centralized Hindu agency to look into all problems pertaining to Passive attitude and then proceed with remedies.

Please note this is an appeal, a humble petition to my brothers and sisters and fellow countrymen. We have inherited a STUBBORN AND PASSIVE ATTITUDE, which is the root cause of the entire problem. And our religious leaders after Independence exploited this further to earn money, and power. The statistics is there for every one to see. After independence, if the increase in wealth is measured, big industrial houses will come first and our religious leaders or GURUS, a proud second. This is when most of these GURUS claim that they do not even touch money.

NOTE: There is serious problem of exploitation of Hindu Society by the Hindu Religious Preachers, or GURUS. Otherwise how can one explain this statistical fact that Hindu Religious Preachers and Gurus wealth has increased manifold and the Hindu society is struggling; even BPL(below the poverty line) families have increased. It is a shame on all Hindu educated persons.

Are we simply going to sit passively in our sitting rooms and let Hindus become SLAVES once again! The choice is YOURS! HOW LONG WILL HINDUS SLEEP? The time to take action is NOW. Do it. OTHERWISE IT WILL BECOME TOO LATE!

Kamdhenu fulfils needs without depleting natural resources

In our ancient texts several references of Kamdhenu is made. What exactly is Kamdhenu?A cow which fulfills every need? or A science which is prohibited to be provided to persons who are usurpers as it can, on its own, capable of fulfilling every need of the society without depleting the input recourses. Or is it simply a word or Dharma which means that humanity has to live and utilize the natural resources in a particular manner so that the resources are not depleted.

My interpretation of the meaning of the word KAMDHENU is:

Kamdhenu is the art of living in complete satisfaction in natural surroundings, and using only very limited natural resources and like cow, providing more to nature than taking it. This is the only way that the need of entire humanity can be fulfilled.

Let us trace the history of the use of word Kamdhenu.

Kamdhenu is believed to have emerged from the depth of oceans as a result of churning of ocean. After the great flood, the sea rose to unimaginable levels and the wave formation which is also visualized as churning of ocean stopped. It is said that after a very long period of time, perhaps after lakhs of years, the wave formation or churning of ocean RESTARTED. This is symbolized by Kurma avatar of Lord Vishnu. 

The wave formation or churning of ocean once again filled and colored the sea water with various live forms and resources and Lord Vishnu blessed the Humanity that as long as they used these resources as Kamdhenu, i.e. for the purpose of fulfilling their needs these resources will not get depleted and just like tortoise which has a very long life, these resources will remain Kamdhenu (keep on fulfilling the needs of Humanity).

Sybolically churning of water is the beginning of a new Maha Yug, an altogether New Era. We now know that sea has abundant resourses to be tapped by humanity, but for fulfilling the needs and NOT for destruction or self destruction. This was and is an important Dharm, which unfortunately had not been followed by Humanity; as a result, lots of scientists feel that we are moving towards extinction.

The next time we heard of Kamdhenu was when Vishvamitra wanted to USURP Kamdhenu which was with Sage Vashist. Once again our ancient religious texts want us to believe that it was a cow.

It is important here to note that ancient Hindu text has been written in ‘Sutras’, which means ‘coded language’. As such we need not worry with this being called cow; the cow is believed to be a symbol of the earth ; because it gives so much yet asks nothing in return.

My interpretation of use of force by Vishvamitra represents the desire of Vishvamitra that “he can do it better”. He used force and sophistication to impress Vashist how the resources of jungle can be available in abundance for use by people living in jungle; but none of the persons living there was impressed. He suddenly realized that Sage Vashist has taught the people living there, the precious art of SATISFACTION, which he did not possess. Realizing his mistake, he left for penance.

I am only taking one more example, out of several, of use of word Kamdhenu in our religious texts. The father of Bhagwan Parashuram, who was a renowned saint, had a cow Surabhi, which some say was Kamdhenu. King Sahastrarjuna once along with his army was travelling through that jungle and the saint fed his army and the king with the help of Kamdhenu. The king demanded and when refused forcefully took Kamdhenu away, only to be retrieved later, by force by Parashuram.

Kamdhenu was an art to do everything blissfully and with honest intent, also with intent and knowledge to ensure that natural resourses do NOT deplete. ant the resoures were getting depleted very fast then. and, like today, this was getting only lip service. This WAS an IMPORTANT reason for repeted Avtar of Lord Vishnu as Lord Parashram And Shri Ram, but I would NOT raise this issue in my subsequent posts, as, already there are lot of other serious issues which the society has to understand.

We know that the Avatar of Vishnu takes place when the quantum of Adharm reaches to unmanageable level. We also know that the evolved Humans, also called Vaanars were treated badly by the people of Kingdoms. Perhaps ‘treated badly’ is a wrong word. They were exploited and abused.  As such, since the Vaanars who were helping the saint did serve the food with warmth and positive thought, it was enjoyable. And the king decided to forcefully take these persons to be used as slaves. Later, of course Parashuram rescued them.

The world today, more than ever, requires humanity to understand and accept the need of Kamdhenu.

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HINDU HISTORY... START OF A NEW KALP

INTERPRETATION and INTERPOLATION in Ramayan

PARASHURAM came to save Vaanars from INHUMAN exploitation of Kingdoms

Vaanars, were humans with tails. They were hunted, treated as animals, traded too as animals. Females, too, during pre Ram era were exploited, with religious Gurus blessings. Problems were severe, barbaric requiring multiple Avatars

We have to explain to the entire Hindu Community, the purpose of AVATAR OF PARASHURAM. Before that we have to understand the social and geographic condition of Treta Yug, where EVOLVED HUMAN BEINGS, who were called VAANARS, were living in forest and there were Kingdoms too, were normal humans(as we know them) were living. Now to explain the purpose of Avatar of Parashuram, we have to take the social and geographic condition of Treta Yug into account. What was THE PURPOSE OF PARASHURAM'S AVATAR?

Who were these KSATRIYAS or Warriors, against which he has to raise his arms 21 times? Important thing to remember here is that Parashuram’s forces were FIGHTING TO KILL the enemy forces, and NOT just to defeat them.

What was the Barbarianism or exploitation in which these warriors were engaged? We know that Parashuram’s forces were FIGHTING TO KILL the enemy forces, and NOT just to defeat them. They were however sparing those Ksatriyas who were legitimately getting married to females whom they have kept. That certainly means that there was serious exploitation of females.

REMEMBER the avatar of PARASHURAM was JUST before the Avatar of Shri Ram. 

Towards the end of the earlier Kalp, or Mahayug, whatsoever one chooses to call it, because of submersion of almost entire land mass under water, Manu started his journey over sea with the help of Matsya Avatar. The journey possibly extended to thousands of years, as such several generation of humanity sailed over sea, in different ships fighting for the diminishing sea food and resources. Perhaps that is why the name Man, Manushya or Man is given to these persons. Anyway every misery ends, and they did find land where they could restart their life.

These people from different land and culture first settled on the land, slowly started to multiply and later started forming independent settlements.

People who had developed the habit of eating HUMAN FLESH, and were termed RAKSHAS during passage through sea, formed separate settlements, as others were apprehensive about their behavior.

Slowly forests also started developing, with various animal and bird. Later the purest form of human being evolved in jungle. They were called Vaanars.

Note: there were several Avatars in-between, but this post does not provide scope to discuss them. We want to discuss Parashuram Avatar.

The first think that we have to accept and understand is:

As and when there is Decrease of Dharm and Increase of Adharm to UNMANAGEABLE proportions, Lord Vishnu incarnates in the form of human.[Note: it is pertinent to understand a simple fact about Incarnation; Incarnation means accepting characters in Ramayan and Mahabharat as humans, having NO SUPERNATURAL or MIRACULOUS powers i.e. God as human who did not use supernatural powers]

What is the quantum of Adharm for Lord Vishnu to incarnate is not decided by us earthlings. It is decided by Lord himself. However we need not doubt the fairness of God regarding His presence on earth as Avatar. the quantum of Adarm required for lord to come as avatar would be the same for all ages, yugs and for all humanity.

But one thing is known; we know the standards that Lord Vishnu had used earlier NOT to incarnate. That would provide us with credible assessment of the extent of barbarianism which required Parashuram's avatar. 

Now we have to access the standards that Lord Vishnu had used earlier NOT to incarnate:

During the last 1000 years of invaders rule extreme atrocities were committed on Hindus. Without getting emotional, all I can say is that the abuse of females was indescribable. Females, able bodied males and even children were taken away as slaves to their native country. Temples were razed and plundered. Conversion was forced. As I said, I can be only miser in describing all this.

People cried for God’s help, but God sitting in heaven, did not feel Hindus required HIS physical help, though Hindus are highly religious. HE could physically help the society at large only if HE incarnates.

And HE did not feel the atrocities and Barbarianism to be sufficient to incarnate.

This is one standard that we know that Lord Vishnu had used earlier NOT to incarnate. Having ascertained the extent of Barbarianism that prevailed which forced an Avatar as Parashuram, we now have to provide details.

There is very little one must admit, regarding the details about it in ancient history. The only thing that we have is forcefully taking away belongings of people living in jungle, for instance Kamdhenu was forcefully taken away by warriors of kingdoms. The simple meaning of Kamdhenu is one that fulfils every need. Thus the people of the jungle were not allowed to even fulfill their basic needs and if someone retaliated, even old and harmless persons of the forest were killed. Even Parashuram’s father was killed and his chopped head taken away as trophy. Killing a sage who was mediating is bad enough, but to chop and take his head as trophy was Barbaric.

Now we know that jungle were the living places for Rishis and Vaanars. So who were the victims, we know. If Rishis were killed, what was happening to Vaanars whom the Kingdoms had even refused to accept as Humans.

As earlier said, WE, in 21st century cannot accept SUPERNATURAL or MIRACULOUS powers. Why? Because human history has no place for this, and secondly by accepting SUPERNATURAL or MIRACULOUS powers, the attitude of Hindu society had become passive; what I am saying cannot be judged by religious persons alone. It has to be judged by Social experts.

There were two major problems. One was the extreme animosity between kingdom and Vaanars which often resulted in brutal behavior of people of kingdom towards Vaanars. Knowing that they were humans with tails, Vanaars were hunted, treated as animals and traded too as animals. 

The other was the exploitation of females in which religion was also used. Parashuram father asked his sons to kill their mother for a flimsy reason of her watching some sport, and Gautam Rishi killed his wife Ahaliya, are examples of same. The avatar as Parashuram only tried to make sure that Vaanars were left alone by kingdoms.

He also ensured that powerful people like Ksatriyas kept females only through marriage. However he found himself totally ineffective in dealing with religious persons and religious Gurus and they all were, not only involved, but blessed the irreligious activities by invoking and interpreting religion to bless such atrocities.  

The religious exploitation of females by asking them to undergo the dreaded Agni Pariksha or killing their wife on flimsy grounds (just like Gautam Rishi did) could not be stopped. It was left for the next avatar, Shri Ram, to make sure that Vaanars got their rightful place as Humans, and to ensure that females were provided same treatment as males by religion.

Lord Vishnu came on this earth as Shri RAM to ensure:

(a) Settlement of Vaanars as Humans and
(b) To abolish Agni Pariksha, and establish it as an Adharm plus
(c) Give a message to the future world that Sanatan Dharm believes in EVOLUTION and NOT in CREATION by Establish Ram Rajya. This Ram Rajya did not last long which in itself is a proof that Evolution is important.

Religious Propagators and Gurus, because of their NON-SOCIETY-CENTRIC ATTITUDE are unable to accept even the real meaning of Incarnation. Incarnation means accepting characters in Ramayan and Mahabharat as humans having NO SUPERNATURAL or MIRACULOUS powers.

You may also like to read:

Hanuman was a VAANAR and certainly not a Monkey 

Are we doing enough as Hindus